FSL Report Of Private Laboratory Can't Be Binned Without Considering It; There Must Be Strong Reasons To Reject It: Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court observed that the FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) report submitted by any private laboratory cannot be binned without considering the same and there must be strong reasons to reject it. 

The Court observed thus in a batch of criminal petitions filed by the accused persons, seeking to set aside an order taking cognizance for the offences punishable under Sections 403, 420, 467, 468, 474, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and to quash the criminal proceedings against them.

A Single Bench of Justice M.G. Uma elucidated, “Even if the accused takes a stand regarding authenticity of the FSL report issued by the private laboratory, they are free to take the same before the Trial Court for any justifiable cause. But it cannot be held that the report submitted by any private laboratory is to be binned without considering the same. There must be strong reasons either to reject or to disbelieve such FSL report.”

Advocates Siddharth B. Muchandi, Chethan B. Angadi, and M.P. Srikanth represented the petitioners while HCGP K.P. Yashodha, Advocates H.S. Srivasthava, and R. Nagendra Naik represented the respondents.

In this case, crimes were registered based on an FIR lodged by the informants and in both the complaints, they made similar allegations with respect to very same documents for having conspired together, forged the signatures of the complainants, concocted the documents in relation to shares, committed cheating by using the forged documents as genuine and committed misappropriation. The informants were the husband and wife and they alleged the commission of offences by the accused persons (petitioners). It was alleged that in 2015, they received a registered post from the accused no.1, containing the details that 90% of share capital of the Company belonging to the complainants were transferred in the name of accused no.1.

The informants found that the signatures on the said documents were forged. It was submitted that the informants lost their share certificates and they suspected that the accused persons stolen it, misused the said share certificates, and concocted fake documents by forging the signatures of the informants. Hence, they requested the police to register the case and take legal action against the accused.

The High Court in the above regard, noted, “It is the specific contention of the learned High Court Government Pleader that the disputed documents were referred for scientific examination and the report of the expert was obtained by the Investigating Officer before filing the chargesheet. A copy of the FSL report is produced for perusal of the Court.”

The Court said that it is the case of the prosecution that, prima facie, the disputed documents do not bear the signatures of the informants but on the other hand, the disputed signatures found on the documents were made by the accused. It added that, when such clinching prima facie materials are placed before the Court, there is no justification for seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings by the accused.

“It was noticed that there was a procedural lapse on the part of the learned Magistrate, while taking cognizance of the offence. It is observed that the police appears to be partisan in supporting the accused and the investigation was not conducted dispassionately. Under such circumstances, the Court observed that there is serious error in referring the disputed documents for verification to private laboratory instead of sending it to forensic laboratory run by the Government”, it further remarked.

“We are all aware of the number of Forensic Laboratory set up by the Government and its conditions in the State in particular, and in the Country in general”, it added.

The Court concluded that under such circumstances, the contention taken by the counsel for the petitioners that the FSL report submitted by the private laboratory is to be ignored, do not sound reasons to the Court.

Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the criminal petitions.

Cause Title- B. Manjunath v. State of Karnataka & Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2024:KHC:35865)

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